Redemption and Mini Goals

Last month I decided to get back into running for a variety of reasons. I generally consider that to be the restart of my "running life" after the roughly 19 year hiatus following high school. However, it was not the first time that I tried to get back into it. One of my personal regrets was my first attempt to do so.

I first tried to get back into it about two years ago. Unfortunately, when I did so, I did pretty much everything wrong. Or rather, I did pretty much everything wrong for me (as what works for one person doesn't necessarily work for another). I didn't have a plan. I just ran. I was trying to run every day. I ran during the hottest part of the day (because it was convenient). Most importantly, I was trying to pretend that I was still 18 and that I had not added about 50 pounds of padding since then. In short, I didn't want to admit that I was horribly out of shape and that it was going to take time for me to get my legs back under me.

All of this soon lead to the breaking point. The Wife had started to try to run with me (which did lead to short run/walk sessions followed by me continuing on after she was done) but then she got injured -- unrelated to running ironically enough. I then suffered a minor injury that really should have just needed a few days of rest -- which I didn't give myself. Finally, I attempted my longest run up to that time. It was hot. It was humid. It was an out and back (which I hate). There was a strong wind (blowing against me on the second half). To top it off, I had had a pretty long day at work. The result was that I only got about two-thirds of the way through before I just couldn't go on. I had to stop and walk, had a cramp, and the injury felt worse than ever (yeah I was an idiot). My pride was damaged severely, especially because by my high school track/XC standards, it was still a short run. I took a few days off and tried a couple other short runs, but the damage was done.

Fast Forward to last week and I was looking my nemesis in the face. My plan had finally gotten me up to the requisite distance and the easiest way to do said distance was this out and back. Fortunately this time around I am dragging my lazy bum out of bed early and was out at 5:15 when it was about 58 degrees (practically unheard of in July around here). The wind stayed calm. The cramps stayed away. No injuries to report. Not only did I finish it, I felt so good I tacked on an extra couple of blocks at the end to get to an "even" number, just to show the route who's boss. Needless to say, it was a major hurdle that I had crossed and one that let me know that my new approach was definitely good.

Better yet though, I'm happy to announce a couple of mini-goals having been reached. The first occurred on the scale the other day. I got on, watched the numbers bounce around a bit, then finally settle on the digital scale. A second look confirmed what I thought I saw, or rather what I didn't see. There was a distinct absence of "2's" on the scale. Okay, still a long way to go, but definitely refreshing after my weight had flirted with that for about a week.

Finally, I have a 5k scheduled for next month. To be honest, I am not really sure what to expect in terms of time. I've been trying to come up with realistic goals, but goals that also require me to push myself. So, I initially came up with an A, B, and C goal. The C goal was sort of the "I should definitely get this, but I'm not certain yet" while the A goal is "Ehhh, probably not, but if things go really well, who knows?" Anyway, last week I had a 3.25 mile run scheduled. While I didn't run it all out by any means, I did want to push myself a bit (in part because I had overslept a bit). The result was that my time for the run was better than my C goal. To be fair, I did pick it up a bit on the last quarter mile when I realized that it was possible to beat said C goal.

More to the point though, just to prove it was no fluke, I did my longest run to date yesterday, a 5 miler. It was also my first run with music thanks to finally getting an armband for my phone and combining that with the Nike+ App. I felt fairly good throughout (though the long uphill stretch got my attention). At the end I finished and started flipping through the details of the run on the App only to see that I had recorded my "fastest" 5k (which was automatic at that point since it was the first time using the app on the run). The proof came though with the fact that the time on the fastest 5k portion was only 5 seconds off of my C goal. Time to adjust my goals I guess.

On a side note, I loved having the music on the run and the app works really nice. I am not real thrilled with the cord on the earbuds though. Does anybody out there use Bluetooth (or other wireless) ear buds on their runs? If so, what do you recommend? If they can also potentially be used for taking calls that would be a bonus but not a requirement.

After destroying 2 iPOD 5s in the rain/humidity here, I've moved to iPod shuffles. Those iPods have been my most expensive running expense. I figure the loss of a shuffle won't hurt so bad. My advice--go cheap.

After destroying 2 iPOD 5s in the rain/humidity here, I've moved to iPod shuffles. Those iPods have been my most expensive running expense. I figure the loss of a shuffle won't hurt so bad. My advice--go cheap.

5 miles run is a big hurdle. Way to go! Good luck with your 5K!

I've certainly considered the possibility of the cheap mp3 player. Right now I kind of like the phone so that I can get split data. It's not that I'm terribly concerned about the split times per se, but rather to see "Oh yeah, that's why I felt so bad the last half, I went out way too fast." That said, the mp3 player combined with a good watch may be the best bet in the long run.

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